Numba gives you the power to speed up your applications with high
performance functions written directly in Python. Uses LLVM.

Use pax, by David Kendal.
“[T]he pax program, by default, produces and unpacks tar files, with a
much simpler interface than tar: it’s quite easy to commit the basics
of it to memory.”
I never had trouble using tar, but I have to admit that pax is more logical.